Dick Brongers in conversation with Herman Rosenberg

Dick Brongers (1950) studied history at Leiden University and regularly writes about individuals, institutions, and companies that collaborated with the German occupiers during the Second World War. As a historian and archivist, he was involved in the provenance research of the art collection of Kunstmuseum The Hague (formerly the Gemeentemuseum) before, during, and immediately after the war.

A gripping biography of a megalomaniac and feared real estate tycoon
He was known as Reinder the First, the emperor of real estate. He was the prototype of a new kind of entrepreneur: the all-powerful property developer. Reinder Zwolsman reshaped the Dutch seaside towns, though not everyone was happy with the results. Under his influence, the monumental Scheveningen was transformed into the concrete wasteland it largely remains today.

With his bravado, drive, and hunger for publicity, Zwolsman became a national celebrity. In the 1960s he was in the newspapers almost daily. His business empire expanded to proportions unheard of in the Netherlands. But by the mid-1970s, the dream had come to an end.